The Power of Michelle Yeoh: Ballet, Stunts, Stardom! Part 1

 

A couple of years ago, I decided to do a series of books about the first Asian actresses in Hollywood: Anna May Wong, Nancy Kwan, Frances Ngyuen, Lucy Liu and Michelle Yeoh. 

That didn't seem very feasible at the time, so I decided to focus on one actress: Michelle Yeoh. Why? Firstly, she came from Mum's hometown of Ipoh in Malaysia. Second, her late dad and my mum were cousins (how distant I have no idea). The Yeohs practically populated that small mining town. 

In an age where movies were not readily available in Malaysia, I guess the Yeohs had nothing better to do than populate the town. I think both sets of maternal great grandparents had around nine kids each.

When my Dad was Singapore's Commissioner to Hong Kong, my parents would occasionally meet Michelle at social events in Hong Kong (when she was married to her first husband Dickson Poon) but they did not remain in touch after they left Hong Kong.

I've met Michelle about three times in my life, so I can't say I know her but she's acknowledged we're cousins one of the times we met. But by this stage I must admit she would probably claim I'm sort of nutter and wouldn't know me if she saw me again.

From my cousin Michelle. (How many times removed are we? I don't know)

Mum meets Michelle for the first time in over 20 years

Anyway, Michelle had been in show business for 40 years and in Hong Kong and Hollywood, the only actress from SEA to have achieved that feat, and at the time she didn't have a picture book biography on the market, so I called my illustrator Soefara and asked if she would be interested in illustrating the book.

Soefara  jumped at the chance. She was raving about Michelle's new movie Everything Everywhere All at Once and Soefara is all about featuring strong, empowered women in her artwork. 

preliminary cover concepts

Thing is Soefara takes her time illustrating, so much so that I've given her the  nickname Slowfara.

I started drafting the story. The theme would be "power". How she powered through broken ballet dreams, stage fright and other obstacles in her path to achieve international stardom and the much-coveted Oscar.

Rough sketch

An aunty, one of my mum's friends, had a friend who worked with Michelle on corporate speaking engagements and she offered to broach him with regards to any assistance in getting the book to Michelle. He's a big shot of sorts who is involved in a rather large annual  business summit.  I thought that was a kind offer but wasn't expecting anything. So, I was rather taken aback by the cold, curt, and dismissive response he relayed to aunty. So much so that I felt he had aunty convinced to his point of view. He curtly replied that "IF" I were related why didn't I contact Michelle personally myself. Then he proceeded to be extremely discouraging by telling her that the studios might put a kibosh on the book and loads of other challenges I would face getting the book off the ground. I got the distinct feeling that he found my book a personal affront to him and Michelle.

I almost called it quits right then and there but my mum and Soefara encouraged me to carry on. I also remembered that Michelle didn't give up just because she faced obstacles in her path, she just powered on. I mean the first draft of the manuscript had been finished. Why should I give up because of one person's negative and unhelpful reaction. Would it have stopped Michelle? No.

Bearing in mind that there were certain limitations, I decided to write about Michelle's journey from aspiring ballerina and beauty queen to becoming an actress, proficient stuntwoman and superstar. I would briefly touch on the rest of her amazing 40 year career.

I handed Soefara a preliminary draft  in November 2022. And as Michelle's performance in EEAAO kept gaining accolades, I kept redrafting it. She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a musical or comedy! What if she went all the way? What if she actually won the best actress at the Oscars?

For a while it was touch and go. She lost the Critics Choice Award and the BAFTA: Two awards that are predictors of who will win the ultimate acting trophy: The Oscar.  But then she won the SAG Award and the Independent Spirit Award, the last awards before the Academy Awards. It was a tight race between Michelle and two-time Oscar winner, Cate Blanchett, but momentum was on Michelle's side.

And so Soefara and I decided to  put the final page of the book on hold until after Oscar night.

When Jessica Chastain and Halle Berry announced: "The Oscar goes to Michelle Yeoh" we were off to the races, well, at Soefara's leisurely pace. I asked one of my publishers if they would be interested in publishing the story, but she didn't get back to me. As time was of the essence, I decided to self-publish the book under my own publishing house: Bonnie Books.

There were numerous hiccups a long the way to publication and but what book hasn't had its fair share of turbulence during production?

The book was finally hot off the press in July 2023. 

Read on for Part 2.